(a) A person or corporation owning or operating a railroad shall construct and maintain on the sides of its road, when completed and in running order, a good and sufficient fence, along land of an operating farm adjacent to the railroad.

(b) Whenever the owner or occupant desires to pasture livestock on land adjacent to the railroad not then used for pasturing livestock and desires the railroad to erect the portion of the fence next to the tracks, he or she shall fence the portion of that land which is not adjacent to the railroad, and the railroad shall construct the portion of the fence adjacent to its tracks within five days of notice to it from the owner or occupant that his or her portion of the fence has been completed, and shall maintain that fence so long as the adjacent land is used for pasturing livestock. (Amended 1977, No. 139 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. March 24, 1978.)